Episode 1809 - What Happens in Vegas
The ninth episode of Season 18 of Hell's Kitchen aired on FOX, on December 14, 2018. On that episode, Chinese cuisine was the main theme, one team made a comeback at dinner service, and a shocking, but satisfying, elimination of a boastful chef took place. Intro While going back to the dorms, the men realized that the women’s internal arguing has fractured them, with Trev seeing the cracks starting to form. Mia tried to tell Kanae that the reason she nominated her was so she herself was not nominated, but Kanae was still mad that Mia threw her under the bus. However, Ariel and Heather told the two to cease the arguing, as the former said that they were still a team, even though Ariel secretly realized that Kanae and Mia’s arguing would be beneficial for her game. Meanwhile, Bret warned Motto that Ariel was a gangster bitch who could cook. Team challenge The next day, Trev sarcastically did the weather inside the dorms, as Sous Chef Christina called the chefs out to the front entrance. When they got outside, they saw the Immortal Lions Dancer troupe waiting for them, and after a short performance, Ramsay announced the Chinese Cuisine Challenge. Each team would be cooking with five Chinese proteins such as spot prawns, chicken breast, pork tenderloin, duck breast, and black cod, with each team going head to head on those proteins. Ramsay asked Jose who he wanted to face off against, he said Kanae, and she picked to cook with prawns. Mia said that she wanted to cook against Trev, and he picked pork tenderloin, although she said that it was a poor choice on his account as Puerto Ricans loved pork. Motto decided to go up against Ariel as he wanted to beat the best, and she picked duck breast. Heather chose to go up against Bret, and he picked cod, leaving Scotley as the lone chef with chicken breast. Then, Ramsay asked the women which out of the four of them would like to cook with two proteins, and after a quick discussion, Kanae volunteered as she wanted to show them who was the best. Both teams had 45 minutes to cook their dishes, with Ramsay revealing that their takeout boxes contained fortune cookies with their ingredients. However, Kanae did not know that her prawns were still alive until one of them started wiggling, while Scotley started to get annoyed by Trev’s attempt at leadership, calling the latter a motor mouth. As the two continue to bicker, an annoyed Bret told them to stop it. Motto decided to cook his duck breast three ways, felt that Ariel was not as technical as she thought she was, and declared that he would not quack under pressure. 22 minutes into the challenge, Kanae had Ariel taste her sauce as she was allergic to nuts, and was willing to get help as she was cooking two dishes. Eventually, both teams got their dishes cooked and plated on time. Shirley Chung was invited as a guest judge, and Mia heard that she was an amazing chef. The pork tenderloin round was up first, and Trev’s spiced rubbed pork tenderloin was praised for the spices, Chung felt that it did not come off as an authentic Chinese dish, with the pork being dry as well. After, Mia’s soy and ginger pork tenderloin with stir fry was criticized for the presentation, but praised for being delicious. So, Mia scored that round, the women led 1-0, and Trev admitted to being worried about the former. On the black cod round, Heather’s black ramen miso soup was criticized for tasting too sweet, while Bret’s pan-seared cod with Chinese five-spiced powdered ginger was praised for a very well cooked cod despite the miso butter not being important. So, Bret scored that round, it was tied at 1 each, and Ariel started to get nervous as Chung was showing to being a tough judge, with her believing that they were all in a fluff zone during the cooking. On the chicken breast round, Scotley’s dish was praised for having the correct spices, but criticized for being misshapen, and while Kanae’s dish was praised for being very traditional, it was criticized for not coming together as a whole. After, Scotley won that round, the men led 2-1, and Ariel got more concerned as her dish was not close to Chung’s standards. On the duck breast round, Ariel’s elongated Chinese plate, despite being difficult to eat, was praised for strong flavors. Then, Motto’s three-way duck was criticized for having raw peppercorn in the dish, with one bite destroying any flavor. So, Ariel won that round, the score was tied at 2 each, and Motto felt that he made a mistake going up against Ariel. On the final round, Jose and Kanae presented their spotted prawn dishes, with the former presenting his head on prawns. It was praised for being flavorable, but Ching and Ramsay were a little confused as to why the noodles were not as seasoned as the prawns. Then, Kanae’s prawns with cold cashew sauce were praised for being aromatic and flavorable, but criticized for being on the dry side. After a tough decision, Kanae won that round, the women won the challenge 3-2, and Trev complained that while the women were getting all the rewards, the only one he got was the safari reward. Reward The women were rewarded with an overnight trip to Las Vegas, with a stay at the Nobu Hotel in the private villa, and flew in a private jet. While being dismissed, Kanae said that she felt more like Beyoncé with every reward. During the reward, Sous Chef Christina joined the women, Heather called the Villa breathtaking, and Mia felt like royalty. While dressing up for dinner, Kanae made the discovery that the toilet was able to clean her ass up, and Ariel hoped that the marque would say her name when she won the competition. Punishment The men were punished by baking fortune cookies, and stuffing the fortunes inside them, though Bret told the women to enjoy their night as he would be the one that was living at Las Vegas at the end. During the punishment, while the men were cutting their sheets of fortunes, a pissed Scotley, who wanted to go to Vegas, sat around doing nothing but vape smoke and eat a burger. That pissed off Trev with him say that half-assing the punishment would not fly. Later, the men were deep in work making fortune cookies with Bret complaining that they have been at it for four hours, and Motto complaining that his back was hurting. Then, Scotley decided to boil some eggs for a snack, but that annoyed Trev as those eggs were supposed to be for the cookies, and accused the former of caring only for himself. However, that led to an argument between the two as Trev feared that the negative energy would affect them come dinner service, but Scotley told him to shut the fuck up. Before service The next day, the women returned from their reward, but the mood in the dorms was still tense as Trev talked to Heather about how Scotley was a complete douchebag during the punishment, which the latter sympathizing with him as Scotley had a huge chip on his shoulder. When both teams began prepping, Trev tried to get a bit of organization going in the red kitchen, but that led into another argument between him and Scotley until Bret had to break it up as they had to work as a team towards dinner service. Then, Motto reminded the men that there were four women in the blue kitchen, refused to be embarrassed that night, and both teams were sizing each other up. After prep, Ramsay had both teams lined up, and after asking the women about the reward, he announced that there were going to be a lot of VIPs that night, including the stars of Beaches Madhouse. So, both teams would focus on one half of the ten-top table, and after, Ramsay asked Marino to open Hell’s Kitchen. Dinner service In addition to the Beaches Madhouse cast, David Plummer, Alison Schmitt, Tanner Pearson, and Tyler Toffoli were in attendance that night. As the women began working on their first order, Ariel felt that the motivation has changed, and that it was time for them to play and work hard. However, Kanae accidentally dropped two scallops, and had to quickly make two refires for the order. When Ramsay saw that, he reminded her to send them all out in one serving, but she was confused by that statement until she realized he meant to slide the scallops out at once instead of picking them out one at a time. Despite the delay, the women’s first order of appetizers was sent out. 15 minutes into service, Motto was concerned about the growing animosity between Trev and Scotley, and hoped the team would work together. Jose kept micromanaging Trev’s work, much to the latter’s annoyance, but they were rejected for being raw, with Scotley sarcastically asking Trev where his clipboard was now. Jose decided to cook the refire himself, but that led to more bickering which annoyed Bret as he wanted it gone by now. Then, Jose’s scallops were rejected for looking disgusting, and a pissed Ramsay reminded the men that it was not opening night anymore. Having enough, Trev cooked the third attempt by himself, and it was finally accepted. In the blue kitchen, the women were moving onto entrées and served their half of the Beaches Madhouse table, with Ramsay waiting on the men’s half. However, Jose moved from fish to meat in order to help Scotley out, and Trev sent up burnt salmon, leading Jose to take over again due to concern as the latter was an All-Star as Ramsay was lost for words due to the fact that they had a strong service the previous night. After, Jose’s attempt broke on him, he told Ramsay that he needed more time, and Ramsay demanded from Trev who was running fish, before warning him not to say “we” like last time. Trev said that Jose was running fish, and an annoyed Motto felt that they were going nowhere. In the blue kitchen, Ariel felt that there was some good synergy with the women, and remarked that it’s been a while she has worked in a professional kitchen due to the mistakes from the past. When Ariel sent up her lamb, Ramsay had both teams look at it, and called it textbook, which Motto called it a slap in the face. One hour into dinner service, Scotley was struggling on Wellingtons as they were breaking apart when he sliced them, and an annoyed Ramsay asked Bret to show the former how to slice a Wellington, much to the latter’s dumfounded dismay. When Scotley finally sent up his Wellingtons, Ramsay discovered that they were raw, and frustratingly brought over the women’s attempt as a comparison. With the men only having six tickets left, and the women just finishing up, Ramsay called them over into the red kitchen to help the red team out. When Trev snapped at Kanae to help Jose out on fish, she told him not to get defensive when she was trying to help. However, Jose’s salmon was raw, and that served to be the final straw for Ramsay, who proceeded to kick the men out of the kitchen, and ordered them to hang their heads in shame before tasking them with naming two people for elimination. Back in the red kitchen, the women were able to serve all the men’s remaining tickets despite the mess, and after completing them, Ramsay informed them that they served over two-thirds of the men’s tables. Post-mortem Back in the dorms, Bret was struggling whether to nominate Jose and Scotley, or Trev and Scotley for elimination, though Motto went with the latter choice. When Scotley and Jose remembered the first two salmons that were sent up burnt, Trev took responsibility for them, but argued that Jose took more control of fish that night, and failed. Then, Bret reminded Scotley how he screwed up on the Wellingtons, and that there was no reason for him to leave garnish to slice them for him, but Scotley argued that his were only poorly cut, and blamed Trev for the fucked up salmon. However, Trev argued that those sat out due to the Wellingtons, but Scotley argued against that, leading Jose to accuse Trev of covering his own ass and not taking responsibility. Elimination Before asking for the nominees, Ramsay praised the women for performing the service he had been waiting for, while reminding the men that the women served more red diners than themselves, before asking Jose what the fuck was going on. Jose said that there was some bad vibe in the team, and while Scotley accused Trev of being the weak link and running around with a clipboard, Trev argued against that, and reminded Scotley how he slacked off during punishment. That led to another shouting match between the two, with Jose using that as confirmation about the bad vibe. After, Bret announced Scotley as the men’s first nominee, with Trev as the second, but let it slip that he considered Jose was a third consideration. While annoyed by that, Ramsay called the three men down to the front, and during their pleas, Scotley said that he would never give up and bounce back from his mistakes, while Jose said that he was driven to become the Executive Chef. When Ramsay asked Trev about the clipboard comment, the latter argued that it was a notebook, and was trying to find his voice since Season 8. After, Ramsay sent Trev back in line, before eliminating Scotley for his disintegrating performances, and not backing up his claims since the beginning of the competition. During his exit interview, Scotley called Trev the weakest chef on the red team, felt that they would fall apart now, and sarcastically wished the latter, once again calling him baby girl, good luck. After Scotley left, Ramsay called the men’s performance a disaster, and warned them to get a grip. While being dismissed, a pissed Bret felt very embarrassed, and said that he would go back to the person he was back in Season 14, while Ariel felt that the men were breaking apart due to their hate with each other. Then, Trev said that there was no room for Scotley’s attitude in the competition, and that he himself was busting his ass to become a leader. Ramsay's comment: "I really hoped that Scotley would be the big bad wolf in my restaurant in Las Vegas, but after his performance tonight, I could not let him in, not by the hair of my chiny-chin-chin." Category:Episodes Category:Rookies Vs Veterans